“I’m not leaving you, baby,” she whispered.
“I mean tonight.I mean now.”
Her eyes got huge.
She misunderstood him.
“Make no mistake, dearest, I very much wish to couple withyou, but that will not happen tonight, after I’ve had too much whisky, not tomention I gave and received a beating.Though I do want you by my side while Isleep.”
“Won’t people talk?”
He felt his brows draw together, for she had beensequestered for decades and thus did not know many of the ways of her world,but her mother was an adult when she’d been sent away, and she definitely knew.
Surely, she’d explained this to her daughter.
“Our pending alliance has been announced in the papers,” hereminded her.
“Yes, Mom and I approved the wording when Ansley showed uswhat his secretary drafted.”
Perhaps she and her mother had not discussed it, for itwasn’t she who was promised to him, but Maxine.They might not have everimaginedSatrinewould make an alliance.
And it was fair to say, much had been happening since.
Therefore, it was up to him to educate her.
“Propriety dictates I behave in a gentlemanly manner whilecourting you, but once our union has become official, that being announced andpublic, we are at liberty, and even encouraged, to explore what a life togetherwill mean in all its manifestations.”
Again with the big eyes and, “Wow.”
He couldn’t believe it with all that had happened that eve,but he felt his lips twitch.
“Yes…wow.”
“Do you heal fast?”she asked.
There was hisSatrine.
“I do.”
She arched into him and replied on a grin, “Excellent.”
And there was his save.
His savior.
HisSatrine.
ChapterSixteen
Loose Lips
Loren
At first, he feltSatrinemoving.
And then came the pain carving into his side.
He opened his eyes and saw a dark that shared it was stillthe dead of night but feltSatrinefidgeting.
